China's new law sanctions covert detentions

March 14, 2012 11:35 AM ET

New York, March 14, 2012--China has approved revisions to its
criminal code that grants police broad powers to hold journalists and others
who discuss sensitive national issues without chargein secret detention for up to six months, according to news
reports.

Members of the National People's Congress adopted an amendment
to the Criminal Procedure Law on March 8 that allows suspects deemed a threat
to national security to be held in undisclosed locations, news reports said.
Under the new law, police are required to inform the families of suspects that
they are in detention, but do not have to say where or whythe suspects are being held, news reports said. Families of
detainees are habitually advised not to speak to the foreign press, according
to CPJ research.

Chinese state
media hailed the law as progress for human rights, but CPJ research shows
that the law attempts to codify the existing practice of seizing
people who discuss sensitive issues and holding them in secret. Disappearances
were particularly frequent in 2011 as security tightened after online calls for
political reform.

"The Chinese Communist Party has a long history of using
antistate laws to imprison independent journalists," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator. "But this
legislation goes even further, legitimizing secret detentions without
accountability."

CPJ research shows that police and prosecutors frequently
flout procedure when arresting journalists, particularly in regions with ethnic
tension. Families of Tibetan
and Uighur journalists are often completely unaware of the journalists'
whereabouts for the duration of their trial, the sentence, and even after their
anticipated release.

At least 27 journalists were in Chinese prisons when CPJ conducted its annual census on December 1. More
than half were from minority groups.

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